Cooking Fish The Easy Way

Americans tend to eat twice as many fish dinners at restaurants as they do at home largely because they are unsure how to properly prepare fish. Here are some easy and common sense tips about cooking fish at home.

Fish should be purchased either frozen or very fresh at the market. Since fish is delicate, fresh fish should not be refrigerated for more than one or two days. Frozen fish should be well thawed before it is cooked and both frozen and fresh fish should be well dried before cooking.

One of the most popular methods of cooking fish is to pan fry it in a shallow amount of oil. White fish should be coated before it is pan fried in order to protect the delicate flesh from the heat. A coating of seasoned white or wholemeal flour or a mixture of flour, beaten egg and fine bread crumbs is sufficient.

Olive oil or a combination of oil and butter will give the fish a tasty crispness. The oil should be shallow, about 1/8 inch, and should be preheated in a cast iron or heavy skillet over medium heat to about 365 degrees F. This is hot enough to make a small cube of bread sizzle loudly and brown up in about 45 seconds. Place a few pieces of coated fish into the skillet without crowding and cook them for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Thicker pieces should cook for 5 to 6 minutes on the first side and for about 4 minutes on the other side.

Avoid overcooking the fish because overcooking will cause it to taste dry and tough. White fish will change from a translucent color to an opaque color when cooked and will begin to flake when it is done. Fish that flakes too easily is an indication that it may be dry and overcooked.

Grilling is a great way to cook sturdier fish such as grouper, salmon, tuna, and swordfish. Just be sure that the grill is preheated and is cleaned and lightly oiled so that the fish will not stick to it. The sturdier fish may be cooked with a light coating or without any coating. More delicate fillets should be coated and grilled in a grill basket or grilled on a heavy duty sheet of foil.

One of the easiest ways to cook fish is to bake it. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and place the seasoned, coated fish onto a lightly oiled baking sheet or shallow baking pan. Bake the fish for about 10 minutes per inch of thickness. As with pan frying, the white fish is properly cooked when its color turns opaque and it begi00003295ns to flake when a fork is inserted into the center.

Oven broiling is another great way to produce delicious cooked fish. Season and coat the fish well ahead of time. Preheat the broiler and place the fish 5 to 6 inches beneath the broiler. Watch the fish carefully to avoid overcooking. Thicker fillets should be turned halfway through cooking.

The microwave oven can be used to cook a delicious fish dish. Use your favorite recipe for coating and seasoning and try to make the fillets even thickness for best results. Thinner sections of the fish can be folded under each other to help make the fillet an even thickness. Rotate the fish halfway through the cooking time if the microwave oven does not have a turntable. Let the fish stand for a few minutes to finish cooking. Use the color and flake tests to check if fully cooked.

Lastly, fish can be steamed or poached with excellent results. To steam the fish, place it in a metal or bamboo steamer. Place the steamer into a saucepan that has water or stock that has been seasoned with lemon, ginger, or any seasonings from your favorite recipe. It is important that the liquid reaches a simmering temperature but not a boiling temperature. Similarly, the fish can be poached by lowering it into a liquid that is simmering but not boiling. A boiling liquid will cook the fish too quickly and cause the outside of the fish to overcook. The poaching liquid can contain any aromatic herb or vegetable that you enjoy. Cooking times are only a few minutes and depend on the thickness of the fish. As always, test the fish if fully cooked with the color and flake tests.

These easy and common sense tips should give confidence to the preparation of fish dinners at home. Fish is a delicious source of protein and should be included regularly in a healthy diet.

Larry L. Taylor is a Nutrition and Healthy Living advocate
who has authored many articles on Health, Nutrition,
Fitness, etc. Get FREE Insider Access to his opt-in list,
where private blog and members only forum learn how to live
healthy, fulfilling lives.

For a new turn if not a 'u-turn' to good health visit:
http://www.HealthyNutritionSecrets.com

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Make an Emergency Kit

You should always keep an emergency kit at the ready. There are so many possible situations that would require you to be prepared to take care of your family's needs without access to outside supplies. Many of these situations, like earthquakes and floods, give you no notice. Even in situations like hurricanes where you do get some notice, the stores are packed with people trying to prepare. So get your earthquake kit ready now and you'll be prepared for anything.

Here are the items you should include in your first aid kit:

Water. You need at least one gallon of water per person per day for three days. Bottled water is ideal, since it can be stored at room temperature indefinitely. Make sure it's properly sealed and keep it out of direct sunlight.

Food. You need at least three days' worth of nonperishable food for each person and pet. Food should be ready to eat, like dry cereal, peanut butter and canned goods. You may be without a way to cook or keep foods cold. Don't forget the manual can opener!

First-aid Kit. Your first aid kit should include bandages, antiseptic wipes, hand sanitizer, antibiotic ointment, burn ointment, calamine lotion, hydrocortisone cream, cold packs, eye wash solution, gauze, gloves, scissors, tape, tweezers and a first aid manual.

Medicines. Include any prescription and over the counter medications that your family might need. Don't forget antihistamines, like Benadryl, pain reliever, Pepto Bismol and antacids.

Every year you should check on your emergency kit. Foods and medicines expire and will need to be rotated out. Set a date that you'll remember each year. A lot of people change the batteries in the smoke alarms and review their emergency kits twice a year when daylight savings changes.

Coleen Bennett is a pet owner in Southern California. She has a000008A7 dog and two tortoises. She also maintains a website for pet insurance comparison and VIP Pet Insurance

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Stainless Steel Pressure Cookers For the 21st Century Cook

Erase that memory of those awkward looking pressure cookers of the past. Modern stainless steel design and pressure cooker advantages  have merged to create a functional and safe cookware alternative.

Stainless steel has always been beloved by cooks everywhere.  It's hard not to like stainless steel.  It is both durable and versatile.  It's easy on the eyes and does wonders for your food.  It's hard to find a kitchen that doesn't have at least one stainless steel fry pan, sauté pan, or sauce pot. It's also relatively easy to clean.  It's resistant to stain and corrosion.  You can expect it to maintain its luster for a very long time.  It's a cookware that almost never ages.  It will function and look as if you've just taken it out of the box years down the road.

Then there is the pressure cooker.  We all need one.  Can you imagine cooking a less expensive cut of meat without a pressure cooker?  Sure you can, if you have half a day of free time.  Coming in at second place after the microwave, cookers probably utilizes one of the fastest cooking methods around.  But when was the last time you cooked something in your microwave?  That's my sentiments exactly.

Having a 0000094Dpressure cooker use to be a love/hate situation.  You love it for its benefits.  However, it was usually heavy and clunky so you didn't usually take it out except for dishes that would normally take an hour or more.  When was the last time that you used your pressure cooker for vegetables?  Now you can. It could also be dangerous if not used properly.  Although they usually comes equipped with regulator valves, you can't help but imagine what that violent steam inside the pot can do for you.

But Fissler proved to us that there is a Culinary God.  It took stainless steel and combined it with 21st century technology and produced a user friendly, fast cooking, and attractive pressure cooker. The dangers of older models have been replaced with safety features that start protecting you the moment you lock the lid in place. Its artificial intelligence lids include an automatic pressure valve, Euromatic seal that automatically seals the cooker, and a large blue indicator knob with pressure markings. Plus, it can be used for regular stove top cooking when the valve is open thus making this a truly versatile addition to your kitchen.

A pressure cooker utilizes the not so obvious fact that pressure increases the boiling point of water.  This means that your food is cooked fast and tasty.  Pressure cooking is also considered to be healthy cooking.  Because of the high pressure of the steam created inside the pot, germs and bacteria are instantly killed.  Less water is also used when cooking with the pressure cooker, therefore making sure that vitamins and minerals are preserved as opposed to boiling the vitamins and minerals out of your vegetables.

Now you can check out Fissler's Stainless Steel Cookware with its pressure cooker feature and say, "Wow - New Design, Easy to Use, Health Benefits Galore!"

Browse Fissler's Cookware and Stainless Steel Pressure Cookers at Your Smart Kitchen
The online location for quality cookware, bakeware, cutlery, appliances and relat000027CFed kitchenware. Quality products at reasonable prices with customer satisfaction guaranteed.
Specializing in Fissler, Paderno, Mauviel, Chasseur, Swiss Diamond, Romertopf, Kaiser, DeLonghi and other quality brands.

Terry Retter

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Low-Carb Cookbook Review - Low Carb Christmas Cookin' With an "Old-Fashioned" Cook by Jan McCracken

I love low carbing, but I'm getting so tired of the same old foods.

I wish I had time to figure out how to convert my family recipes to low
carb!

I love finding old recipes done low carb!

Do any of these comments sound familiar? They sure do to me; I've said
them all at one time or another. And they are so true-two years later and
I am still trying to find the time to try and convert some of my favorite old recipes, especially with the holidays arriving!

I am determined this holiday season to stick with my low-carb eating
plan, and I decided s00002099ince I couldn't find the time to convert my own
recipes, I needed to find some good alternatives. I hit the jackpot with
Low Carb Christmas Cookin' With an Old-Fashioned Cook by Jan
McCracken (Poppyseed Press, 2003).

Jan's brand new cookbook is an entertaining delight. Every page
delivers a smile, laugh or grin-and terrific recipes. Low Carb Christmas
Cookin' is a colorful, easy-to-read, 224-page paperback book liberally
sprinkled with fun. From funny and sometimes outrageous photos of the
author mugging for the camera to anecdotes, homespun quotes, and
humorous ways to prepare recipes, all the way through I got a strong
sense of the fun and spirit of this feisty and entertaining lady.

Low Carb Christmas Cookin' isn't just fun. Though smiles lurk on every
page, the recipes are seriously good. The cookbook is broken into nine
chapters. Some of my favorites are, Dollops & Plops, Feliz Navidad
Low Carb Fiesta Christmas! and Holiday Affair with Chocolate. The
All Thru the House chapter has some great potpourri recipes, too.

I've tried several recipes from the book, and so far they are all keepers.
My mom adores Ole'It's Holy Guacamole! and I made the Staggerin'
Swiss Chicken for friends, and it was a huge hit. Other personal
favorites from Jan's book include, Pineapple Upside-Down French
Toast Casserole and Hot Cashew Chicken Salad. Since this is a
holiday recipe collection, you should expect that there are some recipes
that call for fruit, so for those on very low carbs you may need to watch
the portions, but Jan has done a good job of keeping her recipes low on
the low carb scale.

I just fell in love with the humor and joy so obvious throughout the entire
book, and I drooled over the recipes. Honestly, I'm not sure what I
enjoyed more, reading it or making the recipes. Either way, I will be
sending copies of this low-carb cookbook to low carbers on my
Christmas list and I know one old sugar grouch that will find one in his
stocking!

Low Carb Christmas Cookin' With an Old-Fashioned Cook by Jan
McCracken can be purchased through www.janmccracken.com.

Cherie' Davidson has been working as a Web copywriter, content editor, press release writer, Web reviewer and site marketing consultant for several years. You can contact Cherie and read more about her at her Website http://www.CherieDavidson.com and her humor blog cdwrites.blogspot.com.

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Low-Carb Cookbook Review - Low Carb Christmas Cookin' With an "Old-Fashioned" Cook by Jan McCracken

I love low carbing, but I'm getting so tired of the same old foods.

I wish I had time to figure out how to convert my family recipes to low
carb!

I love finding old recipes done low carb!

Do any of these comments sound familiar? They sure do to me; I've said
them all at one time or another. And they are so true-two years later and
I am still trying to find the time to try and convert some of my favorite old recipes, especially with the holidays arriving!

I am determined this holiday season to stick with my low-carb eating
plan, and I decided s00002099ince I couldn't find the time to convert my own
recipes, I needed to find some good alternatives. I hit the jackpot with
Low Carb Christmas Cookin' With an Old-Fashioned Cook by Jan
McCracken (Poppyseed Press, 2003).

Jan's brand new cookbook is an entertaining delight. Every page
delivers a smile, laugh or grin-and terrific recipes. Low Carb Christmas
Cookin' is a colorful, easy-to-read, 224-page paperback book liberally
sprinkled with fun. From funny and sometimes outrageous photos of the
author mugging for the camera to anecdotes, homespun quotes, and
humorous ways to prepare recipes, all the way through I got a strong
sense of the fun and spirit of this feisty and entertaining lady.

Low Carb Christmas Cookin' isn't just fun. Though smiles lurk on every
page, the recipes are seriously good. The cookbook is broken into nine
chapters. Some of my favorites are, Dollops & Plops, Feliz Navidad
Low Carb Fiesta Christmas! and Holiday Affair with Chocolate. The
All Thru the House chapter has some great potpourri recipes, too.

I've tried several recipes from the book, and so far they are all keepers.
My mom adores Ole'It's Holy Guacamole! and I made the Staggerin'
Swiss Chicken for friends, and it was a huge hit. Other personal
favorites from Jan's book include, Pineapple Upside-Down French
Toast Casserole and Hot Cashew Chicken Salad. Since this is a
holiday recipe collection, you should expect that there are some recipes
that call for fruit, so for those on very low carbs you may need to watch
the portions, but Jan has done a good job of keeping her recipes low on
the low carb scale.

I just fell in love with the humor and joy so obvious throughout the entire
book, and I drooled over the recipes. Honestly, I'm not sure what I
enjoyed more, reading it or making the recipes. Either way, I will be
sending copies of this low-carb cookbook to low carbers on my
Christmas list and I know one old sugar grouch that will find one in his
stocking!

Low Carb Christmas Cookin' With an Old-Fashioned Cook by Jan
McCracken can be purchased through www.janmccracken.com.

Cherie' Davidson has been working as a Web copywriter, content editor, press release writer, Web reviewer and site marketing consultant for several years. You can contact Cherie and read more about her at her Website http://www.CherieDavidson.com and her humor blog cdwrites.blogspot.com.

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Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Traditional nursery food has made a come back in our family recently. I havent bothered making shepherds pie (or cottage pie, as it is also known) for ages, as the children just used to eat the potato from the top and leave the mince. Mince in general has been rejected too. If I use the same minced beef to make meatballs or burgers the kids devour it, but they hate picking out all the little bits of vegetables that I hopefully put into it, when I make the shepherds pie, in the hope of smuggling a few vegetables into their diet. Anyway my son actually requested shepherds pie the other day, so yesterday I made it and they gobbled it up, vegetables and all, several servings each, so Ive gained one more dish for the regular list.

Recipe for Shepherds Pie

To feed four

500g/1lb good quality minced beef or lamb (hamburger beef)

1 onion

2 carrots

1 stick of celery

1 clove garlic

2 large fresh tomatoes or half a tin of tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

a dash of wine

a few drops Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

water or stock

potatoes

small piece of butter - about 20g/1oz and milk to mash with

Finely chop the onion and saute over a low heat in the olive oil until soft and translucent. Add the carrot, celery and garlic also finely chopped. Saute all together for five minutes. Turn up the heat and add the meat, breaking up the lumps and cooking until it has just lost the raw redness. Dont overdo it at this point. Add the splosh of wine, (white or red, whatever you have open. If you dont have any its not essential) and stir till it has evaporated the alcohol. Add the tomatoes skinned and chopped. Now put in the rest of the seasonings and pour in enough water or stock to only j00000431ust cover the meat. Bring to a simmer, put on a lid and leave to cook at a simmer for 1-2 hours.

The quantity of potatoes depends on how many you have to feed. You can have a thin layer of potato topping or if you need to stretch the meat to feed lots of people, a really thick layer of potato, which is what the children prefer anyway. Peel the potatoes and boil them till soft. Then drain all the water away and let the steam evaporate, so they dry a little then mash them with the butter, milk and salt and pepper until they are soft, but not too runny, mashed potatoes. In a roasting dish or any ovenproof but not too shallow dish, put the cooked meat in a thick layer, then top with the mashed potatoes. Smooth them out with a fork, so there are lines and swirls and peaks of potato that will brown nicely and put the dish into a preheated oven 200C/400F for twenty minutes or until the top has browned to golden. If the meat and potatoes have only just finished cooking and still hot you can just brown the top under000019A0 the grill. This can all be assembled and kept in the fridge until needed too, then it would need at least thirty minutes to cook through again.

Traditionally shepherds pie was made with minced lamb and cottage pie with minced beef but my family has always called both shepherds pie. It also used to be a dish to use up leftover cooked meat from a roast, rather than starting fresh with raw mince, but we like it like this - comfort food for winter.

Copyright 2006 Kit Heathcock

Kit Heathcock - worked and travelled in Italy for many years, is passionate about food and loves being a fulltime mother. Co-creator of A Flower Gallery home of original flower pictures and Food and Family recipes and kids' stuff.

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Cooking Healthy With Oil

There are several oils for healthy cooking. One of the best is olive oil. It has a high smoke point and does not break down quickly as some other types of oils do. When cooking with olive oil it will not lose its health benefits so it is a good oil to use in salad dressings and for cooking with. Extra virgin olive is the best in terms of nutritional value and health benefits. It is good for your heart too.

There are different types of olive oil extra virgin is the best and the least processed from the first pressing of olives. The next type is virgin olive oil which is from the second pressing of olives. Pure olive oil goes through processing and refining and extra light undergoes the most processing of all of the kinds.

When looking for a healthy oil to cook with look at the type of fats it has. Mono saturated fats reduce the level of what is known as bad cholesterol. The oils that have a high level of this fat are olive oil, canola oil and peanut oil. Poly unsaturated fats with omega 3 and 6 are considered healthy fats too. These oils are corn, soybean, safflower, and grape seed. Other good choices for cooking are walnut and flax seed oil. If you are going to do cooking that requires high heat choose peanut or sunflower oil for searing and frying. Oils that are good for baking, sauting and stir frying are grape seed, safflower or sunflower oil.

Olive oil is rich in vitamins like E which is a powerful anti oxidant. Store the oil in a bottle made of dark glass or a stainless steel container. The container should be air tight because the oil reacts with air and becomes rancid. Olive oil has many uses like drizzling it on salad and bread, using it to make homemade condiments, brushing it on meat and poultry, adding it to soup and stews, on potatoes and vegetables. The flavor is very good.

Instead of sauting your vegetables you might want to steam them then add olive oil or another cooking oil for flavor. Broiling, grilling, roasting, and baking meat brushed with oil is healthier than frying and sauting. You can buy a brush and put your favorite oil in a small dish then brush it on meats, fish and poultry quickly just before cooking. You can drizzle oil on vegetables, rice and pasta dishes.

Canola oil is another healthy oil for cooking. It is easy to find on00000ED2 most supermarket shelves. It is low in saturated fats produced from canola plants not rapeseed plants. Store canola oil in a cool dark place when not using it. It is good for frying as the flavor does not overpower the food fried. It goes well in salad dressings and mixes well with other ingredients. It does not separate so the salad dressing or sauce remains consistent. It is healthy oil to be used in baking. Instead of using butter on bread pour your favorite healthy oil on it. When you bake substitute oil for butter you reduce fat about 25 percent.

Candis Reade is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about cooking with healthy oil, please visit Cooking For Your Health for current articles and discussions.

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